Stake of the Bucharest referendum: Whoever controls Bucharest controls Romania

The local referendum that will take place in Bucharest on June 19th, the first of its kind, has a huge stake. Whoever controls Bucharest controls Romania.

The main effect of a majority vote in favour of such a measure will be that the cumulated budgets of the sectors - 1 billion euros in 2010 - would be added to the budget of the Municipality of Bucharest, which itself approaches 1 billion euros, with power over Bucharest to concentrate into the hands of one person, the general mayor, and one council, the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest (CGMB). The sectors are set to be replaced by several departments, which would only manage the policies decided at the level of the General City Hall.

Bucharest residents will have their say on June 19th on whether sectors should be abolished or held on to as stand-alone administrations (they will not disappear as territorial units) with their own budget and their own rules on taxes. The three key questions (out of a total of seven) that Romanians will answer by "yes" or "no" are: "Do you want a Capital with 6 sectors and 7 administrations?; "Do you want a Capital with 6 sectors and one single administration?"; Do you agree that Bucharest be ruled by the general mayor and the CGMB?".

A majority "yes" vote to the first question leaves things as they are at present. A majority "yes" vote to the second question means at next year's elections there will only be candidates for general mayor and for general councillors. The result would be a unified budget of the General City Hall and sector city halls - a 2 billion-euro yearly budget that will be managed by one mayor and one council.

It is hard to say what the result of a majority "yes" to the third question would be, but there are two possibilities: for sector mayors to stay, but play a purely decorative role, or that these institutions disappear.